Changing
Constellations
Naming the New
Computer
and Ideology
Concepts and
Conclusions
The focus on the computer leads to the rethinking of well-known
literary settings and topics, to
the development of variations of classical topoi. An example of such a process can be found in Burkard Spinnen's
Nevena (2010), a
love story taking place in the virtual world of a
MMORPG
(massive
multiplayer online role playing game)
New themes give rise to new character types linked to the computer, such as the
geek in Daniel
Kehlmann's Ruhm (2009). Surprisingly, the computer itself hasn't reached the status ofa character yet and is still considered as a projection surface for human thoughts (Die
Frau, für die ich den Computer erfand, F.C.
Delius, 2009). These issues also inspire writers: Hermann Kant describes the change of writing through computer text
processing in Escape:
Ein WORD-Spiel (1995)
Some works try to fully imitate the experience of the computer, the internet, and multimedia world, therefore breaking radically with the form of narrative or poetical prosa. .
This results in unclassifiable works such as Andreas Neumeister's Angela Davis
löscht ihre Website (2002)
Poetry, as the genre which is always searching for new kinds of relationships between form and content, expresses the strive for a language accounting for the digital world. Robert Schindel, for example, depicts in Endlich Word geöffnet (2003) the everyday life of a poet of our time, working on the computer: searching on Wikipedia, checking his emails, and composing. Other works take the language issue to another level, that of the programming code: Johannes Auer writes interactive poems showing similarities to video games and questioning the poetical essence, like Kill the Poem (1997)
The ideological charge of the literarised computer is expressed among others by the traditional link between the computer and the white, male subject. Ingeborg Harms' Hard Drive (1992) challenges this view, depicting a female protagonist trying to seduce a staff member in a computer centre, and
trying to master the machine at the same time.
Hacker ideology is
reflected in Peter
Glaser's work: Die rote Präzision (1985) and Raumpflege (2003) both deal with this topic, though adopting
strikingly divergent point of views. They convey a vision of hacking as a mean to different kinds
of revolutions. This view is contradicted by René Pollesch's theatrical series www-slums (2000),
showing the appropriation
of new technologies by consumer capitalism and their use against the human interests. A middle position is that from Gert Heidenreich's Die Nacht
der Händler (1995),
recognising the
revolutionary potential of computers but emphasising their misuse
by totalitarian regimes.
This thesis uses the theoretical frameworks of traditional
literary studies, but also of (new) media and game studies. This extension of the analytic arsenal also raises concerns about the the applicability of these concepts: how can we adapt
- medialisation (Nünning/Rupp) - gamification (Pelling) - the distinction game / play (Triclot)
- hacker ethics (Levy) to the study of literary texts?
Influence of the computer : - on all the levels of literature - to an extent never seen in the literary history
It provides evidence of the still ongoing reflection
- on the place of computer technologies in the human society
- but also on the very survival of literature
→ metareflexive
potential
Digital Gender Constructs
New Topoi
Preliminary Results
Internet as a Form
New Characters
Older genres transform to adapt to new communication patterns, for example the epistolary novel which now exist in an email-form with Daniel Glattauer'sGut gegen Nordwind
(2006).
Fully new literary genres appear as well, like Constantin Gillies'
gamer novel
Extraleben
(2008)
New Genres
Inventing a New Language
Theoretical Issues
Computer (and) Politics
The Computer in
German
Literature
at the